


til kingdom come

by eutrash (AreteNike)



Series: Abandoned WIPs [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Medieval, F/M, is it major character death if its a canonical death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 13:25:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14716919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AreteNike/pseuds/eutrash
Summary: Allura is the princess of Altea. Keith is an orphan that lives literally inside the castle's walls. When the castle is taken over and her father killed, Allura escapes with Keith's help--but he can't just abandon her to her fate now that she's free, and she can't take her castle back alone...(Please note this is part of my abandoned WIPs series! Everything in this series is unfinished and most likely always will be. There will be unresolved cliffhangers. You have been warned.)





	til kingdom come

Keith is the first of the castle's inhabitants to know about the takeover, but not by much.

The second to know is King Alfor, moments before General Zarkon runs a sword through his chest.

"Long live the king," Zarkon sneers, pulling his sword free, and Keith knows now everything is going to change.

He wriggles himself backwards through the space between the ceiling and the floor above, away from one of the many peepholes scattered throughout the castle. He knows nearly everything that goes on in this castle; the guards think it's haunted. The servants know it's a friendly haunt. Only the head cook and Princess Allura's pet mice know he's real.

He's never seen a murder on the other side of the walls before. A couple of executions, but not this--not the King's most trusted general usurping the throne.

He pads quickly through a passageway, barefoot, leaning in to every hole along the way. For a few minutes, everyone still goes about their business as usual--then a servant down the hall starts screaming, and the news spreads.

Keith has seen how Zarkon treats his servants. They'll have a harder time under him than under Alfor, but they'll live.

He sees soldiers heading downstairs and turns a corner, and climbs through the wooden studs here, down to the floor below; he's half a mind to warn Hunk of the event, but he's probably surrounded by assistants, preparing lunch. He'll hear soon enough anyway. Little happens in the castle that the cook doesn't hear about.

Granted Keith often tells him much of that, but the point stands.

He ducks into a gap off the passageway, where the castle's stone heart gives way to the wooden walls within--there's another peephole here, and a tapestry, an entrance to the real hallways. This one is empty, the commotion upstairs muffled but still audible. The soldiers are likely on their way here, to ensure the servants obey their new master.

Then--footsteps. Keith freezes in the darkness behind the tapestry. These footsteps are light, slippers instead of boots, a maidservant or--

The princess.

Shit, Zarkon probably intends to kill her too. And he can hear the soldier's boots now, down towards the other end of the hall, around the corner.

He doesn't give it a second thought--he pushes out the edge of the tapestry, startling her, and grabs her arm.

"They want to kill you," is all he has the time to say as he pulls her back behind the fabric. She opens her mouth to respond but he claps a hand over it, pulling her back against the inner wall as the tapestry flops back into place.

"Shh," he hisses. She struggles in his grip, until the soldiers come around the corner and into the hall. They are barely visible through the tapestry, just moving shapes--the tapestry is too thick to allow anything but the faintest light through. Keith doesn't dare breathe, and the princess is still as a statue in his arms.

A shape pauses in front of the tapestry and bends over. "Is this her slipper?" a voice asks.

Shit.

The princess shudders. He squeezes back in warning.

"I think so," another voice says. "She must have come through here."

"Split up--search the whole floor. She can't have gone far."

Retreating boots. And a voice, muffled by the tapestry and fading out of hearing quickly: "I always liked the princess. Shame she has to die."

Silence. She struggles again, and this time he lets her go.

" _ What _ happened!?" she hisses immediately, turning on him. There's barely enough light to make out her face, angry and confused.

"Zarkon killed your father," he says bluntly. "Come on, and don't make a sound."

"I don't believe you."

"Do you want to see for yourself?"

She pauses. He doesn't really want her to see her dead father--no one should have to see that. But he needs her cooperation if he's going to save her life.

Which wasn't really something he'd ever thought he’d do, but he's not going to back out now.

"Yes," she whispers, much more subdued. "Show me."

He looks her over. Her waist-length white hair is loose, she's in a gown and just the one slipper, none of which is good for climbing--he's seen her training in the courtyard with her father, though. She's strong enough.

"Silently," he warns again. "And careful of your dress. This way."

He sets off down the passage, and she follows.

Going back up to the throne room is slower than coming down, not least because he has to give her whispered guidance on where to put her feet--the paths so familiar to him are unknown to her, and a single fall or cry at a stubbed toe could mean death for them both. To her credit, the princess doesn't complain, just follows his orders silently. The only sound she makes is a whispered curse and the sound of tearing, once.

Well, a torn dress is the least of her concerns.

Her expression has settled into something stony when they finally stop, above the throne room by the crawl space. He crouches down and points.

"See that light there?" he whispers.

She kneels and looks. "Yes..."

"That's in the ceiling of the throne room." He straightens up. "Give me your slipper, and don't leave here until I get back."

"Why?"

"I'm going to fake your death."

She stands back up, brushes herself off, and looks down at him regally. He never knew she had an inch on him--but he's never been this close.

"No need," she says stiffly. "If Zarkon has truly killed my father, as you say, then I will kill him myself."

Keith can't explain why, but he is definitely adverse to that idea. She's barely seventeen, dammit, only a few months younger than him--she's too young to have blood on her hands. 

"If you manage to get to him at all--if you can manage to kill him, and I  _ know _ you're not as skilled as he is--you'll still have the army to deal with. They're loyal to him."

"Not all of them."

"Enough of them."

She crosses her arms. "You've done nothing but boss me around and insult me since we met, and it's been hardly ten minutes. I hope you have a better idea and aren't simply doing this for the fun of it."

Keith has some regrets. "I--I'm just trying to save your  _ life, _ your highness! You can't take back your castle  _ alone. _ I don't know what happens outside the castle, but you need allies--maybe your uncle? The one with the mustache?"

She frowns. "I've hardly seen him since Mother died."

"Well, it's worth a try, isn't it?"

She stares at him with narrowed eyes. Screams and shouts and pounding boots still echo through the walls around them, muffled, like the space they stand in is its own separate world. In a way, it is--Keith's world, and now he's brought Princess Allura into it.

It's really not how he thought today was going to go.

"This is pointless," she says finally. "My father isn't dead, anyway. You're lying."

He gestures. "See for yourself. And--give me your slipper."

She huffs, but she does, slipping it off her foot and slapping it against his chest with more force than necessary. Then she kneels again and starts to crawl towards the point of light marking the hole above the throne room far below. He turns and makes his way quickly up through the passages.

There's a room, close to the royal quarters, with a balcony that overhangs the river. It's a long way down. It'll do.

He pauses by the princess's suite on his way, with half a mind to free the mice. There are a handful of maidservants there, though, fretting, so he thinks better of it--later, maybe, when he can go in unseen. The princess will need travel gear, anyway. He continues on.

The room with the balcony is empty, fortunately, and though there's no entrance directly into this room, there's a loose chunk of plaster along the top of the wall. He slides it carefully out of place, tosses the slipper into the room, and replaces it. The balcony doors are open; with any luck, the next servant or soldier to enter will see them, see the slipper, and make an assumption.

He does consider leaving a note for the maids asking them to get Princess Allura's gear together, but there's the chance a soldier will read it. They can't find out she's still alive if no one, not even the lowliest maid, knows.

On the other hand, travel gear mysteriously disappearing from the princess's room with no sign of her elsewhere would definitely be suspicious. Damn it.

Maybe he can ask Hunk to sneak him some things later. Boots, at the very least. Not that he knows if she knows where to go, or very much about surviving outside the city... Maybe letting her fall to a soldier's sword would have been more merciful, if she's only going to starve out in the wilderness.

But he's not going to just hand her over now.

He makes his way back to the space above the throne room, and finds her huddled in a passage nearby, shaking. Quietly, he sits next to her, and waits.

She lifts her head, eventually, and sniffles. "He's  _ dead _ ," she whispers.

"Yeah," Keith says softly, not sure what else to say. She hunches over again, sobbing quietly into her knees, and he hesitantly lifts a hand and rubs circles into her back, until her breathing steadies and she looks up again.

"What now?" she asks, a careful sort of determination in her voice. It makes him sure she's going to be okay.

That said, Keith had really been hoping she'd take charge, but okay. For tonight, he can handle this. "We should wait until it's dark to leave," he says. "There's a secret room where you can sleep, if you want. I'm gonna try and get some supplies."

"For?"

"Traveling? You can't stay here, your highness."

She stares at him for a moment, in the dim passage; then she looks down at her knees.

"I'm just Allura now," she whispers.

He considers objecting, but it's not like he's been addressing her respectfully most of the time already. So he nods.

"Allura," he says. "Come on." 

He helps her up, and leads her through the passages and up a level to the tiny room he calls home. She follows silently.

His room isn't much more than a larger-than-usual gap between the walls, up high where linens and various supplies are stored. It's quiet, and one of the stones in the outer wall--many of which are loose, and he suspects it's more for show than structure--is missing, letting in what remains of the daylight. The space is just big enough for the couple of stolen blankets and old hay he calls a bed, and a couple of old crates stacked on their sides, holding everything he has: his rarely-used boots, a change of clothes, an old sword he rescued from the blacksmith (well worn but still perfectly serviceable), a makeshift sewing kit, and a handful of little tools and trinkets dropped and forgotten by the castle's inhabitants.

Allura takes it in in a glance, and settles herself on the blankets. It's brighter here, and he can see her eyes are still red and puffy from crying as she curls in on herself.

"...Thank you," she whispers.

"You're welcome," he says, and heads off to see if he can't talk to Hunk.

**Author's Note:**

> this is one where i have a lot of outline and notes and stuff but man its just. never getting finished. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
>  
> 
> [im tumbl](http://maternalcube.tumblr.com)


End file.
